Going beyond well-rehearsed comparisons between Dylan and Keats, this conference aims to bring fresh perspectives to debates about the forms and functions of popular music in relation to literature, exploring connections and conflicts between writing (fiction and non-fiction, past and present), and popular music (modern, contemporary or otherwise). Where cultural value was once sought for popular music through analogy with literature, or popular music and literary texts were seen as incompatible, writers and critics now borrow the demotic idioms of pop. Why?